


Stitch Me Up

by orphan_account



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen, Self-Harm, Stitches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-18
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-07-15 18:37:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7234045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During an emergency, Stiles shows off some leet first aid skills. The pack is surprised until they realize Stiles has been taking care of his own injuries for a while now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stitch Me Up

The first time his parents take him to the hospital for ripping out his hair, the nurses stitch him up and shave it all off. He can't help but cry alittle, feeling it's a punishment to not have long hair at seven. And, just as he expects, he's teased the next day at school, especially when some kids overhear his mom telling his teacher what happened. He spends the rest of the week eating his snack in the corner designated by his peers and recess alone near the never-used tether-ball poles.  
  
The following week he starts taking adderall.  
  
The second time he visits the hospital, it's just him and his dad. He's not really aware of much but he hears the words "banging" and "wall". He stays over night from what they call a concussion but soon he's sneaking out to go up to the terminal ward to see his mother. She cries when she sees him, the tubes up her nose and her bruises everything scary looking; he leaves quickly. When a nurse drags him back to his room when he gets lost he thinks back on the questions that the doctor asked earlier; he still doesn't know why he "hurts himself". It just happens, he thinks; he gets the urge to move and then...his dad and his doctor don't seem happy to hear this.  
  
That Friday he sees Mrs. Mullin, his therapist. She gives him a prescription for a different colored adderall and something called alprazolam "to be used when needed".  
  
The third time he goes to the hospital it's because he found an ingrown hair in his scalp and, okay, maybe he got a little overzealous. He'd tried to get the bleeding to stop, kinda like he remembers his dad doing when he ripped his hair out, but because of his short hair the "abrasion" is visible nonetheless. He doesn't get stitches but they do wrap his head. Thankfully it's summer break and better yet Scott, his new and only friend, is away at camp so his head is healed by the time he sees him or has to go to school. Still, when he's at the hospital he almost sneaks off to the third floor but then he remembers; his mom isn't there. She;s in the cemetery, in the special Stilinski burial plot. With that realization, he's quiet the whole way home.  
  
That week he tells his new therapist, Dr. Argerri, that he thinks he needs a higher dosage of adderall; Dr. Argerri agrees.  
  
After that, he goes through his mother's sewing room (which later becomes the guest room) for thread and needles. He does his best to keep his wounds hidden and in places no one will see; he is able to manage the restless self injury as he gets older and he thinks that three years without a trip to the hospital is a serious success. He still keeps his hair short because he knows he'll pull it out if he could; he regrets it however since Lydia tells him during middle school graduation that he's ugly with a buzz cut.  
  
But again, three years without seeing his dad make that disappointed, worried face...he's relieved and thinks he's on the right track. That is, until werewolves and corpses in the woods change all that.

"Alpha wounds heal slowly, " Derek says, Stiles nodding as he weaves the needle through Isaac's flesh.  
  
The curly haired teen winces and Stiles can almost hear the others freaking out behind him. A few more and...he ties a knot with some room left for the inevitable swelling; he starts applying the antibacterial salve and a bandage to the wolf's previously severed arm but a hand on his shoulder makes him pause. Derek explains that Isaac's healing will do the rest, that he should help Boyd if he happens to know how to reset bone. Scott wrinkles his nose at this, beginning to protest but Stiles is already up, jerking Boyd's leg into the right position. The teen yelps but soon he's healing, the cut where the bone had poked though the skin healing rapidly.  
  
"Dude."  
  
Scott's tone is questioning but then Erica is awkwardly digging through Stile's first aid kit.  
  
"Batman, your side."  
  
Stiles looks down at his ruined shirt; it's a scary wound even with it already scabbing over but he knows it's superficial. (He's so glad that Derek confirmed that he wouldn't turn from it.) Sighing, he wonders if he can avoid showing everyone his scars but his hesitation is read incorrectly and soon they're trying to help him undress, a determined looking Erica holding a threaded needle between two manicured fingers. He fights them off when, seeing his marred skin, they all freeze.  
  
"Guys, quit. I got it."  
  
They exchange looks of worry and doubt but, curving himself at an odd angle, he uses a alcohol-soaked piece of gauze (ow, ow, ow, burning!) before he grabs another needle with thinner thread. With his brow furrowed in concentration, he calms his heartbeat as he stitches himself, knowing the angle he's working at is going to make these stitches a little too tight.  
  
The others are still silent half way through, and he knows despite they're attempts at nonchalance that they're staring at his scars; he's got plenty of them, some new and some old. Sometimes he traces over them, when his meds are making him feel extra quirky but often enough just the sight of the ones from Gerard make him wince. Groaning as he fumbles through knotting the threat, he finally rights himself, accepting the musty smelling hoodie from a fully healed, but bloody, Jackson. He huffs, letting Scott help him put it one; already Isaac and Derek have started heading towards the cars (they'd parked a good distance away from where the alphas said to meet) so Stiles led the others towards them.  
  
"Dude."  
  
Stiles raises a brow at Scott, " Dude?"  
  
Soon it becomes clear that no one knows how to ask, what to ask even so they don't; they thank him instead, joking around about whether they should call him Nurse or stick with Mom. Grateful, he scowls at both names but he's thankful too, especially when his dad doesn't give him that disappointed look when he gets home, instead just questioning his new UCLA hoodie with a good-natured smile.


End file.
